Know When to Fold ‘Em

Reverb day 10 Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?(author: Susannah Conway)

All I can think about is the day, this summer, that Saint Aardvark and I were driving across the prairies for home, with a car full of cranky and a trunk full of carefully selected and barely used camping equipment, and several reservations at campsites we weren’t going to be able to get to without driving 8 hours a day.

The children were sleeping or watching Baby Einstein on the portable DVD player and SA and I were talking about whether we should make ourselves miserable driving so we could get to the campsites for our reservations, and then possibly make ourselves miserable camping, as well, but hey, at least we’d be spending what we budgeted?

…or whether we should stay in motels and cancel all our camping reservations and take our unused tent back to Canadian Tire for a full refund, which would, after all, pay for one of the motel nights.

Yes, I really think that was the best decision I made all year. It was hard to give up on my dream to be a camping family, on my wish to spend two nights in Dinosaur Provincial Park, on my carefully laid plans and reservations and all those hours spent scanning the provincial park websites for the very best spot, not too near the river, not too close to the snakes’ dens.

But sanity, at some point, must prevail. And making the sane decision, the one that will help the most people be happiest, is what I call wisdom ’round these parts.

(I don’t take all the credit for this. SA is my sounding board, and I am his. We engage each other in “sanity checks” all the time.)

Runner up: joining the writers group in January, but I’ve gone on about that enough.

Worst decision of the year? Might have been choosing to eat at the cowboy restaurant in Medicine Hat.

Pouting post-non-cowboy dinner in Medicine Hat

Even though it had this … illustration? Artwork? outside it.

Hardcore, man. Can I get that on my van?